


and then there was no happily ever after

by girl_wonder



Category: Fairy Tales and Related Fandoms
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-25
Updated: 2010-12-25
Packaged: 2017-10-14 02:28:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/144343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girl_wonder/pseuds/girl_wonder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There was once a princess who lived a very small life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	and then there was no happily ever after

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ghinry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghinry/gifts).



“Of course,” the doctor said. “Her life won’t be easy. We can see that she’ll be allergic to gluten and dairy. Most likely, she’ll be allergic to many common allergens like dust and pollen. It is possible that there will be additional side effects, as well. Mental retardation, physical disabilities.”

“Of course,” the queen said.

“Do you still want to go through with it?” the doctor said. “I advise you to consider it carefully. The chances are very high that she will not survive past her third birthday.”

The queen laid her hand against her rounded stomach and said, “This is my only chance at a child?”

“Yes,” the doctor said, and knew it was futile to remind her of the possibilities again.

The story begins later, but it starts there: her mother put a hand over her while she was still in the womb.

When she was twelve, the idea of conscious dreaming was introduced. Instead of tutors, carefully scrubbed down each morning, then put into hypoallergenic suits, then told that they could not use whiteboards or paper, only touch screens and computers, her father suggested that they try the newest technology.

Her mother sat at one end of the table, hair pulled back under a scarf, wearing a white body suit. She said, “Isn’t it still experimental?”

“It _was_ four years ago, when we started, “ her father said. He was wearing white gloves as he cut his food, a mask over his nose in case the runny nose he said was just the temperature was actually illness.

The princess put a slice of apple into her mouth and chewed until it was nothing but mushy pulp before swallowing. “Could I go other places in dreams?”

“Anywhere you want.” Her father looked up. “It’s perfectly safe. “

“How do you know?” the princess asked. “Did you invent it?”

Her father laughed. “Better, honey. We stole it and made it better.”

So when she was twelve, she began learning in Paris and Cartagena and Hong Kong.

When she was fifteen, she fell into limbo.

This is what limbo looks like when you’re fifteen and have never, ever seen the world outside your carefully controlled room: it was empty and vast. There were massive cities in every direction and she never once saw another person. She wandered for years, building and destroying.

She began to think that maybe she was god.

So, she built people. She populated her world with attractive young men and women. She gave them names that she remembered. Herekles, Athena, Anansi, Crow. She made them learn and fall in love, and then she made them despair.

Once, she created two cities and sent them to war with each other. The war lasted generations and she built that, too. She built a companion for herself, one with red hair that fell shoulder length. She built green eyes and an ironic smile.

“You know this is getting a bit much,” her companion said. “Even if you are god.”

“What do you mean?” the princess asked.

“I mean, maybe it’s time to do something new,” her companion said. In front of them, the war raged. A man ran into battle with a silver sword and was fended off with a rearing horse and a wooden mallet.

“What’s new?” she asked.

“Have you ever thought about waking up?” her companion asked.

“I cannot wake,” the princess said. “There is a castle, and a witch who guards it. At her hand, she has dragons and monkeys with wings.”

“You watched too many movies when you were trapped in your room,” her companion complained, but still pointed to the distance. “I see it there, the castle.”

“Alright,” the princess agreed. “Maybe it is time.”

She began to walk, but the castle was too far, so she shortened the distance, brought it closer, with its dark craggy rocks and thick looming clouds. She could see the glow of fire in the turrets and squinted back the way they had come.

“Aren’t you nervous?” she asked her companion. “When I wake, you’ll be a dream.”

“When you wake, you will have experienced hundreds of years of building dreams.” Her companion started up the mountain, using feet and hands to pull. “When you wake, you will eventually dream again and see me again.”

“And what if I’m still stuck in the room,” the princess asked, following behind. “That white room where I don’t see anything but white walls.”

Her companion reached a flat outcropping and pulled up onto her stomach. Then her companion reached down and offered a hand to pull the princess up as well. “Wear a mask, cover your skin, eat only raw vegetables. I wouldn’t worry about it.”

The princess agreed, silently, but her companion knew anyway. The princess pointed and said, “There is the door.”

“Will the witch fight us?” the companion asked.

“Undoubtedly,” the princess said.

Just then, a dragon swooped down, catching them both by surprise. The princess suddenly had a sword in her hand, a shield in the other. “I’ll save you!” she shouted, just to say something.

The fight was short, she jumped up and landed on the dragon’s head, able to slam her sword down into its skull. When it was still, its scales still burned bright and hot. She felt herself swoon and collapse against the heat. Her companion stood a distance off, watching.

“Is it dead?” her companion asked.

“Well, since I cannot die and it wouldn’t rest until I was dead…” the princess laughed a little. “Let’s find the witch.”

The hallways of the castle were empty, just as her first years in limbo had been. No one marched through them, no courtiers stood gazing at the strangers in the castle. When they finally found the throne room, it was dark, lit only by narrow streaks of daylight.

“At last,” the witch said. She turned, and the princess knew it would be herself. It was herself in eighty years, wrinkled and gray. Her face had lost its shape, was hanging loose at the chin and cheeks.

“Have you come to kill me?” the witch asked.

“Would that wake me up?” the princess asked, uncertain for the first time.

“No,” the witch said. “For I am you as you should be, old and ragged, torn to shreds by living a life inside a bubble.”

As the witch came down off her throne, the companion moved forward to help her walk towards the princess. Her gait was uneven, limping.

“Then what am I?” the princess asked.

“You are you as you are.” The witch nodded. “Full of hope and unbroken, even in the most hopeless of places.”

“I think I would like to wake up now,” the princess said. “Which means I must die. Do you have any poisons that would do?”

“Of course,” the witch said, agreeably. “Here in this apple.”

The witch held out the apple and her companion took it from between her fingers to present it to the princess with a bow. The smell of the apple was familiar, but not at all like an apple. More like cleaner or the hand sanitizer everyone always needed to use inside her bubble.

The princess took a bite and woke up.


End file.
